Parenting Yourself

Calab has a real good post few days ago. You can read the article by clicking the link above.

Dave

Missionaries Are People Too!

At 4:00 P।M. a dusty van pulls up to the church. The passengers peer through finger-printed windows at the only car in the parking lot. Is it the pastor's? The janitor's? Or just an abandoned vehicle?

"Oh, please let the church be open," Mom breathes। Dad hops out with an "I'll-only-be-a-little-while" look over his shoulder. To Mom, this translates, "Keep the kids in their straitjackets another 45 minutes while I find out what plans the pastor has for us.

Mom sighs. Is it worth crawling over two unfurled sleeping bags, four wired kids and a van full of odds and ends just to use this brief interlude to tidy up? Forget it. Save your strength. Wait till the kids are snoring sweetly in their sacks-say 11:00 PM. or so.
Voices drift toward the front of the van।

"He took my potato chip!"

"But I found it on the floor first!"

"I have to go to the bathroom now!"

The last one cuts through the din like a new paring knife। In one scrambling movement, everyone is tumbling out of the van and hurtling churchward with Mom calling weakly, "Be quiet and don't run in the halls!"

Beware! Your missionaries are here! To some church folks, they are as familiar as our favourite coffee mug। To others, they are just some family from outer Slombovia. Do you rush to greet them or figure that they'll never remember you anyway? Will tonight's service just be another missionary message (ho hum) with slides and a sunset?

Missionaries-are they real? Do they arrive at church Sunday morning, looking like a prayer card, while you struggle with your Sunday School books and an appropriate church smile? It's not fair, you sniff। You go on day after day in the same place, while they "see the U.S.A. from their Chevrolet"-eating out and staying in motels.

Let's eavesdrop on a missionary drive to church।

"What do you mean, you left your Bible at the last church?"

"I told you to go to the bathroom before we left the motel!"

"But it was your job to make sure she had her church shoes on!"

I have actually witnessed missionary families, children lined up according to age, sitting primly on the front row, eyes riveted on the activities in front. And then there are others.
Dad sits on the platform। Mom approaches the pulpit to provide the special music. Suddenly, cries of "Mommy! Mommy!" break the sanctified stillness. A small body hurls itself at the soloist and clings like static to Mom's wrinkled dress. As the offender is trundled off to the bowels of the church, Mom smoothes her skirt and her dignity, resuming her march to the microphone.

Dad begins preaching, the children hanging on every word। Mom is relaxed and enjoying the message। And then, in a stage whisper, one kid innocently shares with folks four pews away, "Dad always preaches this sermon!"

"Mom, I need a pen। No, not a pencil, a pen!"


"Mom, she has my notepad। She's wrecking my notepad!"

"I know you're hungry। I told you to come eat your cereal, but you were too busy making a fort with the pillows."

Church is over; Dad and Mom relax a bit, but wait-the family has been invited out to a buffet! Everyone clambers into the van। The four-year-old is sobbing. Her Sunday School paper is at church, and she desperately wants to show Mom the pop-up Noah looking out the ark window. Dad, waving to home-bound church-goers, speaks out of the side of his smile. "Hurry up. Buckle your seat belts. The pastor is waiting for us to follow him."

"No, you can't ride in Johnny's car," Mom explains।

"No, I didn't see the lady in the choir with the funny glasses।"

In line at the buffet, Mom sees her six-year-old (four people away by the pastor's wife), blithely helping herself to a small scoop of macaroni and cheese, one carrot and three-fourths of a plate of red Jell-O squares। At the table, Mom glimpses her four-year-old dumping a glob of chocolate pudding in her lap, and Mom realizes she forgot to iron "back up clothes."

After the evening service, Dad and Mom have spoken with every possible person। They've smiled their last smile. The kids-obnoxiously normal-are just tired enough (from an afternoon "nap") to have their second wind. They have been banished to the last pew so Mom could have meaningful conversation lasting longer than 45 seconds. It's time for marching out quietly to the van-solemnly singing hymns while boarding- fastening seat belts without being reminded and motoring off into that missionary sunset.

Whoops! Look again!

"He got in first and won't let me by!"

"Can we have a snack when we get back to the motel?"

"I don't want to sleep on the floor again; it gives me a headache।"


"Was I good tonight, Dad?"

What can you think of that would make missionaries feel special?



And the King shall answer and say unto them,Verily I say unto you,Inasmuch as ye have done itunto one of the least of these my brethren,ye have done it unto me.Matthew 25:40

The Bible Speaks On Homosexuality

I got this from Pastor Art Kohl web site. You can read the article by clicking the link above.

Dave

1. The Law of God speaks against it.

Leviticus 18:22, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” An abomination is anything that is disgusting to God.
Leviticus 20:13, “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”
Deuteronomy 23:17,28 “There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.” The word “dog” means a sodomite or a male prostitute.

2. Biblical history speaks against it.

Genesis 19:4-12, “But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door. And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place:” Genesis 19:23-28, “The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.”
1 Kings 14:24, “And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.”
1 Kings 15:11-12, “And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father. And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.”
1 Kings 22:41-46, “And Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. Jehoshaphat was thirty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: nevertheless the high places were not taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places. And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he shewed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land.”
2 Kings 23:7, “And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.”

3. The Prophets of the Old Testament speak against it.

Isaiah 1:9, “Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.”
Isaiah 3:9, “The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.”
Isaiah 13:19, “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.”
Lamentations 4:6, “For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.”
Ezekiel 16:49, “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.”

4. The New Testament speaks against it.

Romans 1:26-32, “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
1 Corinthians 6:9-11, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
1 Timothy 1:9-10, “Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;”
2 Peter 2:6, “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;”
Jude 7, “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

5. Conclusions.

Over the last few decades, the semantics of this issue have changed. It has gone from Sodomy to homosexuality to gay or lesbian to sexual orientation. Today’s reference to it as sexual orientation has certainly taken the sting out of the sin.
The focus of the debate has turned from a behavior to an issue, like abortion where the debate has turned from the procedures of abortion to an issue.
If one would focus on the behavior that homosexuals admit to, they would agree with the Scriptures which says they are “abusers of themselves with mankind.” Should any government official condone abuse even between consenting adults?
“Stay out of our bedrooms, stay out of our private lives,” is a defensive posture we hear from pro-homosexuals. There are many different laws that affect each of our private lives. Laws against adultery, fornication, pedophilia, beastiality, incest, torture, rape, even seat belt laws. Most laws in some way legislate morality. Do not kill, do not steal, etc.
Homosexuality is fatal. The average homosexual, whether male or female lives about 45 years. This is 30 years less than the average heterosexual male or female. This is alarming! Only 3% of homosexuals reach their 65th birthday. Each statesman should work to warn the populace of this danger. Some in government have gone to great lengths to discourage cigarette smoking. They have sued the cigarette companies. They have had enough of the deaths that this behavior causes and the dollars spent on treating tobacco related maladies, yet cigarettes takes an average of 6 years off of an adult’s life. Homosexuality takes 30 years off. We should stand against homosexuality even if only for health reasons.
Justification for homosexual behavior is often given from the “look at the great contributions they make to our society” angle. Do our contributions justify our life style? Would this exonerate a child abuser, pedophile, prostitute, incest, beastiality or any crime or criminal? Of course not! There are certain laws I must obey in private and in public that legislate morality that are good safeguards for myself, my wife and family. I can not beat my wife and children with a baseball bat in the privacy of my home. It would endanger them and rightfully so I would be arrested. As we have seen, homosexuality endangers those who are involved with it in private.

It is best for society to believe the Scriptures in its opposition to this abominable lifestyle.